Christmas wreath

This is another project that I *think* may have looked better in my head. I haven't quite decided yet.

I'm perplexed. I'm not really sure if this looks good enough to hang on my door. I don't know if it looks 'professional' enough. I don't want people to look at it and think: wow, she must have thrown this together fast. I have self-esteem issues when it comes to my crafts :/

Anyways, I knew I wanted to try a square wreath. I don't know what it is about them but I just like the look of them. I found lots of them on Pinterest and I loved the idea of a different shape for a wreath

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I already had an old frame so I was all set. I just had to let the rest come together in my head for awhile. When it finally did I was so excited to start. I actually got some of the ideas for it after I made my I spy ornaments . The only thing I had to go out and buy was the ornaments. Everything else was already in my possesion. Score at least one for me on this project!

 

 

I took an old frame that was already silver and wrapped it in some pine garland and then wrapped some Christmas ribbon around that. I googled the types of pictures I wanted for my center, punched them out using my 2" circle punch, carefully rolled them (very loose) then placed them in the ornament. I used 2 larger ornaments and one small one. Then I used a crochet hook to unfold them and get them where I wanted. If you want the picture to stay (mostly) in place, put some epsom salts in there. Stopped them from moving around a little bit! I tied my ornaments in the middle and added a wire hanger on the back and its on my door. I really do like it and am glad I was able to pull it off.

 I went through my stash of ornaments and found the gold stars I knew I had. They were part of my 'college student on a budget' Christmas decor that I had saved :)

My favorite part is that it showcases the real meaning and origin of Christmas, which I am trying so had to instill in my almost 3 year old as she loves all over Rudolph and Frosty and Santa. No fault in balancing things out a bit!

 

 

My biggest craft yet!

Whew! Finally, a chance to blog. And, something to blog about.

Summer is always jam packed with things to do and I wanted to focus on this one BIG project in my spare time. Like I have a lot of that. But, haven't you ever had about a million projects all in the works at once? Some started a little, some almost finished, some waiting to be started including all the suppplies bought. Yeah, this one was special so I wanted to get it done and done well.

I first saw a play kitchen a year or so ago on a craft blog somewhere and they began popping up frequently. They were made out of an end table or old nightstand or something like that. I thought they were pretty cute and maybe someday I would make one.

Then, came Pinterest. Bad, bad, bad, addictive Pinterest :)

It was there I saw kitchens made out of old entertainment centers. It was there that I decided I WOULD make one someday. Soon. The hunting began for the perfect piece.

Finally in April I was united with the perfect entertainment center. My mom works at a church and each spring they host a 'rummage sale' as a fundraiser. Because my mom works there, she sees everything before the sale as it comes in and is priced. The best kind of pre-sale :)

My mom sent me a picture and I told her I wanted it. Unfortunately, when we went to pick it up that night it wouldn't fit in our van:( I was literally heartbroken. The perfect piece at a reasonable price-$40!! Luckily one of my mom's volunteers who was there that night with us offered to drive the entertainment center the hour to our house in his pickup truck the following week!

This piece had several hands in on it and is filled with so much love!!

I am going to put LOTS of pictures in this post. I took pictures of the entire process. I am going to show exactly how I did everything. When researching this project I would find ideas and inspiration and wonder how they did that or what they used. There are no secrets to my projects, I won't hide anything from you! So, bear with me and here we go.

I will try and include prices on everything but I don't know exactly how much was spent but I wouldn't put it over $100. For a huge, solid, heavy, hopefully long lasting kitchen set :)


Her are the before AND after shots:

About two months after the center came to our house we finally got started on it. My husband pulled out the power tools and began taking the doors and hardware off for me...

Our daughter had lots of fun with this part of the project :)

My husband cut holes for our sink and then I started to paint....

 and, paint...

 AND, PAINT!!

This wouldn't have been so bad except right around the time we did this was when the heatwave started to choke us. Temps near 100 during the day and in the 80's at night made the painting even harder...I hate sweat! I did three coats of paint (we used paint we had leftover from the last time we painted our living room) and I almost did a fourth. Then I decided that since this was for a two year old and would be decorated so noone was going to notice anyways we stopped at three.

The oven door was spray painted using a Krylon silver metallic paint.

After the painting was complete my husband had to put everything back together. Look at all of those pieces!

The doors of the 'fridge' had been glass and we of course removed those. The hubby bought a big piece of plywood (I think) and cut it to fit. We also used it on the back of the entertainment center to close off the area where the TV would go. We paid $10 for it and it would have been much cheaper if I hadn't been so fed up with painting. I wanted one that was already white so naturally it was about three times as much as the 'natural' one.

For the stove top I got a bit creative. I bought some unfinished wooden plaques and swirlies at Jo-Ann's. I painted the swirls with the same metallic spray paint and the plaques I painted orange and black with craft paint I had on hand.

I used two large 'burners' and two smaller 'burners' just like my stove has. The knobs are wooden pieces I got at Jo-Ann's and they already had holes in the bottoms. I spray-painted them and my husband somehow attached them so they turn :)

All of the handles were added to replace the wooden knobs the center came with. I got them in a six pack for $9.99 at Target. For the stove door I moved the handle from the side to the top and moved the hinges to the bottom so it opened like a stove.

Do you see my 'tile' backsplash? :) I got a roll of contact paper at Big-Lots for $2.99 and used my Cricut to cut it out and then hand applied it all. It may be my favorite feature!

The fridge didn't really seem like a fridge to me so I glued some of those magnetic letters to it. Much better :)

The sink was a bowl we found at Wal-mart for $1 in their summer/picnic section. I like that it's red. The fixture is an old one that my husband had saved from our last update. Finally, a reason to be glad he keeps everything! The window is actually a picture of our back yard-the same thing I can see from my kitchen! I printed it as a 8x10 and my husband made a window frame for it. I made the curtains from a fat quarter and hung them on a dowel using a set of those 3M removable hooks. The basket is a last minute find I got for $4 and I am working on getting more flowers for it. My mom gave her that empty soap bottle because she told me her sink needed soap.  She is obsessed with washing her hands these days :)

The other side of the 'wall' really had me stumped. The hubby said the board wasn't strong enough to hold a shelf or anything and I was bummed. And at a loss. I finally decided to make a clock. I used a Chinet plate, some scrapbook supplies and number stickers. Perfect for the space. I used another fat quarter to match the curtains to make her a pot holder and oven mitt.

This may have been one of my most involved projects but it is currently my favorite. My daughter loves it and I hope we have it for years to come. Plus, I love to hear her tell people "mommy and daddy made me a kitchen".

A successful project if I ever saw one!

Magnetic 'Princess Puzzle'

My daughter named this project all by herself. I had no idea what I would call it but she calls it her 'princess puzzle' and since I had nothing better, it stuck. Pardon the pun :)

I bought some princess magnets in the dollar spot at Target a while back. I thought they would make a fun prize for her for one thing or another. Then I thought "what 2 year old would have fun looking at something stuck to my fridge"? Yes, she has lots of magnets on my fridge and I am constantly kicking on of her alphabet magnets but enough is enough. I decided I did not want anything else for her to play with on my fridge.

And, the idea for this 'toy' came to be. I made her an activity set she loves and since it is magnets it is also something she can only play with when with someone else. An adult someone else, to supervise, so I get to have lots of fun with her and this one!

I started with the magnets and an old cookie sheet.

This is a really old cookie sheet. It was actually one I kept in my oven as a 'drip pan' which is why it is so black and forever tarnished. I hate when my stuff starts to look like this so I didn't use it anymore.

I was hoping to find some scrapbook paper with pictures or scenes on them that I could just cut out and around but I didn't. I bought some plain green, plain blue,  and a page of 'cloudy sky' paper. I also found a package of Disney chipboard pieces that included a castle, trees and flowers among a few other things (I didn't use the other pieces so I don't remember). Plus, it actually matched some of the magnets perfectly...it had the same coach and castle so I knew it would go together well! I had a 50% scratch off coupon so that only cost me $2.50.

A bit of white spray paint. lots of cutting, a bunch of two sided tape and my cookie sheet looked vastly different.

Now add the princess magnets and she has a fun new plaything! I just have to remind her every so often that only the princesses and the carriage move so if you do make this for a smaller child, using the chipboard might not be the way to go unless you are always going to be there to make sure they don't rip pieces off :)

Thrifty updates

The big girl bedroom was finally finished a few weeks ago!

I decided to post all of my halloween crafts before revealing any new projects though. But, with Christmas projects on the horizon I have to get them in now. Plus, everyday gets me one day closer to my due date and I have so much to do before then :)

I bought this bookshelf storage thingy at a garage sale for $3 about 2 years ago for my mom. She had those colorful plastic bins on it to store toys in the playroom in her house. But, as the number of her grandchildren grows, so does the number of toys! We had been looking for something to use as a nightstand of sorts in Miss C's room when we were at their house one weekend and it was sitting in the hall. My mom said she was waiting for someone to take it to the curb. It was pretty beat up when I bought it and our kids had added to it so she was just going to trash it.

It came home with me and we got to work. My before picture was taken AFTER my husband had sanded it down:

We painted it white to match the other furniture and I found some scrapbooking paper I liked and Mod Podged it on there. This was a big project for me. I had never done such a big area of mod podge before or on something that I needed to be perfect. I re-did the top twice-thank goodness it's water soluble! Then I did research and got out an old credit card and used that to smooth it out and I was happy with my second attempt. I really love the overall final look of it:

It has many more of her books and trinkets on it now and is the perfect size for what we wanted. That pretty cool lamp was found at a mom2mom sale and I think it adds the perfect bit of diva :)

The last project for the big girl room took me forever to finally get to. And, it was the easiest-there is no method to my craft madness!

I found a 52x90 curtain panel at Salvation Army a long time ago. It was $2.99 and I thought it was beautiful and of course a great quality; very thick and sturdy. I really had no idea what I would use it for but I thought it would come in handy eventually.

I had brainstormed over a few ideas of how to use it in the BGR and finally decided to just use it as a window treatment just like it was intended. Except I needed two short panels so I cute it in half and made a spot for the rod to go through on the bottom half and just did a basic hem on the top half that I cut. I added some pink rick rack along the bottom that I got for $3 at Jo-Ann's. For $6 I got beautiful curtains for my daughter's room.

A ghostly re-purpose

This is one of my favorite Halloween decorations this year and I don't know why. I made it last year-maybe it's because it was so cheap and easy. Or maybe it's because it's spooky but in a cute way.

I'm talking about that ghostly guy on the right :)

He started out as a $1 purchse from Salvation Army-it's a sconce cover, I think.

I simply painted the inside with mod podge and then sprinkled it with TONS of white glitter-be sure you do this over a piece of paper or a box top or something because this project got extra glitter everywhere! I used my black paint pen again to make the face and tied some halloween ribbons around the little piece at the top and was done. So quick and inexpensive. I put one of those LED battery operated tea lights underneath him too...that's the best part! My daughter makes me turn him on everyday...she even wants him on during the day when you can't even really tell he is lit up but he's cute nonetheless so who wouldn't want him glowing? :)

Making the old new again

Never in my life did I imagine that I would have a white bedroom set in my home. I wouldn't even LOOK at them when we were choosing the furniture for our nursery and we ended up with a 'natural' wood color.

However, on a shopping trip to Salvation Army when my daughter was about 8 or so months old I ended up coming home with a WHITE twin bed. The horror still stuns me :)

So, when she started using the big girl room we had to get furniture to somehow match it. Or at least come close. I wanted a low, long dresser but not a high, narrow one. Does that make sense?? I also didn't want the low long one to have a mirror attached to it. There was already a mirror on the wall in the room and I wanted to use that and just position the dresser beneath it.

I didn't want to spend a fortune on furniture either though. I was delightfully surprised when my parents offered us my old dresser from when I lived at home. I moved out of my parents home the day I got married and didn't take any of my bedroom furniture with me. The bed was technically theirs and they could still use it for the grandkids. The dresser was mine but we had no space for it since my husband had been living on his own in our current home for nearly 4 years and every room was outfitted. Thus, it became storage space for my 'rents.

They told me I could have it back if I really wanted to paint it for the big girl room. I REALLY wanted to do this and after I showed the piece to the hubs he was pretty happy too. I got this piece when I was a teenager from a  church rummage sale. I offered them $20 for it and they offered to put it in the car for me! It is much older than me and beautifully built. It is one of those pieces that you look at and say: "they don't make things like this anymore".

We took it home, removed the handles off the drawers and my husband got to work. I barely remembered to take pictures of what it looked like 'before' but you can get the basic idea.

One coat of primer and two coats of white paint (not exactly like the bed but close enough) later and it was ready. I thought about getting new, fun handles but when we put one back on 'just to see', I fell in love. The old ones went back on and much to everyone's dismay I didn't even try to clean them up. I love the look they have after all these years. I don't even know what all I will put into every drawer but I am sure they will fill up as C grows up :) I could barely wait to decorate with my craft projects...I was really bugging my husband to give me the green light but I had to wait until the paint 'cured'...it was so worth everything though:

C marks the spot.

While 'Little Miss C' was still our 'C-baby' I wanted to make a personalized something for her bedroom door.

Once more I found myself at Salvation Army looking for treasures. I had gotten a glittery foam 'C' at Joann's a while back for next to nothing so that would be my base. I found a $2 wooden picture frame at SA with a floral print in it. I took it home and discarded the glass...more on that at the end.I removed the mat and floral print and worked with just the cardboard backing. I sprayed the frame with yellow spray paint, attached a fun piece of scrapbook paper to the cardboard backing and affixed my foam 'C' to it so it would be 3-D like. I took some white ribbon I already had on hand and made a cute hanger with a bow for it. This is the end result and it cost me about $3 to make and only took about 10 minutes total not including drying time!
I don't hae a picture of it hanging because it took my husband about 4 months to put a nail in the door for me :)

Now, if you do ever try something like this here is my unsolicited advice. If you can't figure out what to do with the glass from the frame and you just want to pitch it, when you discard it please, please, for the love all that is right, please put it in a box or something sturdy BEFORE putting it in your garbage can. And take the time to walk it out to the garage or wherever the big cans are and not put it right in your kitchen garbage can. If you don't, you may take some extra time to run to urgent care after you finish your project. Then, you'll come home and look like this:

I still have an ugly scar but you can bet I am more careful when crafting though. You can also bet that I am now afraid of my garbage can when I go to put something in it and push stuff down to make more room :)

Holiday Candy Jar

I love my local thrift store. I try to go about once a week. I have bought so much for Miss C and the house from there. My favorite thing to do though is to wander the aisles and find things I can turn into something else. I am semi-good at this. It also helps alot that my favorite thrift store is right next door to the Dollar Tree. I find my hidden treasure then head to the DT next door to get my supplies on the cheap! This is something that I made right before Christmas. I only took the one picture after making it which is why it is decorated as such.

I simply found all of these things at Salvation Army:

A $3 candle stick and a $2 glass jar with lid. The small wooden knob I got at michaels for $1. Altogether it cost me $6 to make.

I simply took my go to black spray paint that I keep on hand and painted the candlestick, lid and wooden knob. I did rough up the candlestick with sandpaper before spraying; so far nothing has chipped or come off!

I used my gorilla glue (LOVE that stuff!) to glue the knob to the lid to make a handle. I originally thought about gluing the jar to the candlestick but since it already has that little indentation where the candle would go I figured I would just sit the jar in there and make it removable for easy cleaning.

I change out the ribbon, decorations and candy for the current holiday/season and I have a year round use for it! The final look: